If you’ve had the ‘pleasure’ of being upgraded to Gmail’s new-look, self-organizing inbox in the last couple of weeks, you might’ve noticed something off. Google has taken the opportunity of using the redesign to start delivering ads directly into your inbox, disguised as genuine email.

As reported by CNet and other websites, these ads have started popping up in the next-to-useless “Promotions” tab of your new, multi-colored inbox. You can spot them fairly easily – they’re differentiated with a pinkish background and there’s a small note below the sender’s name that indicates exactly what it is, but that doesn’t excuse what Google’s doing – ads are invasive, nobody likes them, and now they’ve just landed in the holiest of holy places.

These new ads are distinct from real messages, like newsletters and such from marketers – your email address hasn’t been sold to advertisers directly, this is Google spying on you once again – looking at your browsing history, your likes and +1’s, picking out keywords as you type your mail and so forth – so it can ‘choose’ various promotions it thinks you might like.

It’s sad to see that numerous bloggers have leapt to Google’s defence here – Winston Ross in the Daily Beast takes a belittling tone and tells everyone to ‘relax’, whilst TechCrunch insists that they’re “nothing new” and we should all just “chill”.

Unsurprisingly Google has leapt to the defence of its new policy in a statement given to CNet:

“As always, advertising keeps Google and Gmail free to use. We work hard to make ads safe, unobtrusive, and relevant. Instead of ads always appearing at the top of your inbox, they’ve been relegated to a more appropriate place in your Promotions tab to create a better overall experience.”

Gmail’s “unobtrusive” new ads… Yeah, right

BULLCRAP

Well, you know what Google. I don’t buy this reasoning, this is not about keeping Gmail “free to use”. As a company that’s raking in billions of dollars each and every month, spending millions on crazy projects like driverless cars and Wi-Fi hot air balloons, you’re not exactly on the verge of bankruptcy. You already bombard us with ads on just about every single website we ever visit, every time we search for something, whenever we send an email – this time you have gone too far. This is not about keeping Gmail free, this is about greed, but sooner or later you’re going to end up shooting yourself in the foot.

Along with the new inbox design, these ads seriously diminish the Gmail experience and I’m sure many users will be unhappy about it. For starters, this “new way of organizing my mail” feels like it’s been shoved down my throat, it’s not something I care for. I’m perfectly capable of sorting out my own mails thank you very much, I don’t need the kid glove treatment. In fact, the new tabs make it that much harder for people to just glance at their email inbox. Google forgets that most of us are not business people, we’re not bombarded with hundreds of emails each day. At the most, when I open my inbox, there’ll be five or ten messages, but now I have to check in four different locations just to see what they are?

As for the new ads, these just make it worse. By hiding these among our ‘real’ emails, they can easily be mistaken at a first glance, and they’re not even that easy to delete – you have to click on the “X” button on the right of the message line, which is the opposite of where all the regular action buttons are.

How To Hide Gmail Ads

Thankfully, the new inbox layout isn’t mandatory. We can revert back to normal by clicking on the settings option (the ‘gear’ icon at the top right of the page). From the settings menu, select “configure inbox”, and from there you can deselect all the new tabs so they no longer appear – just leave the “primary” tab, and all of your mail will end up in there. For those who like the new tabs, it’s possible to just deselect “Promotions” and keep the others.

But, but, but… As with all major changes, this could well be forced upon us at a later date, if Google decides that it can get away with it (much like Facebook did with its timelines). At some point in the future, Google may well decide that we have to have the tabs, or it may just push ads into our “primary” inbox if we keep hiding those promotions.

If and when that happens, don’t be surprised if you see a flood of people finally ditching Gmail for good. Ads might be necessary, but they certainly don’t belong in our inbox, and there are plenty of alternatives that refrain from doing so – including Outlook.com, Yandex Mail, Mail.com or Zoho to name just a few.